


Nights in the Castle

by Onehelluvapilot



Series: Tumblr prompt fics [33]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Gen, Sieges, hunger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:33:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27634154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onehelluvapilot/pseuds/Onehelluvapilot
Summary: Percival and Elyan in the beginnings of a siege
Relationships: Elyan & Percival (Merlin)
Series: Tumblr prompt fics [33]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1922554
Kudos: 11





	Nights in the Castle

The castle was peaceful at night. The servants had all gone home for the day, no pages or squires ran around the hallways tripping everyone, and the guards only patrolled the entrances. At least, that's how it was supposed to be. During sieges, everything changed. Night became a harried time where at least half the castle was awake and busy and the other half was either too anxious to sleep or had already passed out in exhaustion. Guards patrolled every corridor in addition to everyone already being alert for sneak attacks. Builders hammered furiously to repair the damage done to the gates during the day and soldiers stood in long lines for rationed food, trying to make up for meals they'd missed. It was still early in the siege, just the first week out of what could be months, so sickness and starvation hadn't set in yet. Elyan knew they would, if this went on for too long, and he dreaded it.

"I wish I could sleep," Percival groaned, knocking his head back against the wall in the corridor he stood in. The two knights had been assigned to guard the food-apportionment station where cooks and sculley maids handed out bowls of stew. The job was torture for the larger of the two knights, who hadn't had enough to eat for four days. All the bowls of soup for the soldiers were filled the same amount, which wasn't enough for a man of his size. Standing there, watching food being handed out while his stomach was grumbling but not able to get in line, was agony. "At least that way I could escape the hunger."

"Believe me, Percival, you'll be glad you were already slimming down when the supplies get low," Elyan told him. "I've told you about the siege I took part in when I was working as a mercenary?" The knight nodded. "When they finally surrendered, it was because the king had died. He'd been hoarding food, staying fat while his people starved. When that food finally ran out, he died within days, while people who had been going hungry for longer survived." What he left out of the story, given that they were in Camelot, speaking in a very public corridor, was that it hadn't been starvation that killed the king but rather a curse from a sorcerer angered by the injustice. The moral of the story still stood; he'd died because of greed.

"Does Arthur know that story?" Percival asked, suddenly sounding worried for their sovereign.

"I told Merlin once," Elyan replied. "He'll look after him."

"Well, I'm glad I've got you looking out for me too," Percival said. "I do wish I could ease into it a little more gradually though."

That night, when their shift ended and they finally got to eat the dredges of the meal they'd guarded, Elyan snuck some of his own soup into his friend's bowl while he wasn't looking.


End file.
